South Pacific paradise with a backpack

Our first stop in Fiji was along the Coral Coast of the main island. My friend Sarah had researched the Beach House, a very wonderful backpacker resort. We stayed there for three nights taking advantage of the very inexpensive day trips and activities. Everyday there was something fun to do, even though some days we preferred to read trashy magazines on the beach.

Besides taking a sunset cruise, going on a jungle trek to waterfalls, going on shopping excursions and laying on the beach with other travellers, we ran when afternoon tea was called. You would have thought they starved us - free tea and "scones" were devoured in seconds. We would discuss it all day, as though we had nothing to do "What kind of jam do you think they will have today? I hope they have strawberry." In fact, for the remainder of the trip, when we were far away from the Beach House on an island surrounded by famous reefs and exclusive resorts, we still craved the free afternoon tea. Even now, two years later, I can still remember the taste of it.

Besides the tea, one of my favorite memories of this part of the trip was going to a nearby beach for Sarah's birthday. One of the men that worked at the beach house was nice enough to be our guide for the day. I had heard about Natadola beach, how it had waves (unlike the beach that was protected by a reef near us). I also asked our guide to help us find a place to buy a birthday cake.

Sarah, the guide (i have to look up his name in my paper journal)and I headed to the curb to hitchike to Sigatoka Town in order to get a cab to the beach. This seemed to make sense to someone at somepoint, but I'm not sure who or when. We hitchiked with this guy who was working on the movie Anaconda 2 in either Fiji or New Zealand.

Once we got to Sigatoka town to get a cab, Sarah and I bought beer for our trip to the beach.

The cab ride was successful, he even waited for us at the beach. This might sound strange, but to get to Natadola was quite a trek, I'm sure he didn't mind hanging out at the beach for a few hours under a palm tree reading a paper (which is what he did).

Natadola beach was beautiful. There was one pricey resort nearby where we ordered a few icy drinks. The ocean was also really nice, it got deep really fast unlike our beach (Beach House) where you could walk out for a mile with knee high water and sea snakes.